Pre-K Trips BeGone: Thanks Mr. Mayor for taking away the opportunity to get our children and parents to venues around the City

Pat Dobosz, pre-k teacher, reports:

Our trips have essentially been eliminated! Our $1000 budget for trips was cut down to $500 which doesn't allow for more than one or two programs to be brought into a school. Seems this will continue next year. Thanks Mr. Mayor for taking away the opportunity to get our children and parents to venues around the City without a blink of an eye. They have been deprived for sure. The private buses are very expensive  and our inner city children do not generally have the car seats. We never had a problem with our four year olds on the school buses. Most teachers were not told of the change until January when we were ready to make trip arrangements. Going out for a neighborhood walk is NOT the same as going to the farm or Central Park zoo or seeing this humongous dinosaurs at the museum. What a shame for our children. Shame on NYSDOT and on the mayor. I guess if you have to have "rigor" to get children career and college ready, they don't need to see and experience  the outside world. They only have to conform to whatever the DOE at Engage NY says they should know. So sad. So maddening! So disrespectful of the minds of our young ones.

Pat

Transportation (From May 17 Principal's Weekly).

            Pre-K

When offering field trips that require transportation, pre-K programs in district schools and pre-K centers must meet the safety and procurement requirements that are outlined by the NYCDOE’s Office of Pupil Transportation (OPT) and Chancellor’s Regulation A-670. In accordance with these requirements, all pre-K programs must use private buses, chartered through an approved pre-K vendor, for all pre-K field trips that require transportation. In addition, all students who are under the age of 5 or who weigh 50 pounds or less at the time of the field trip must ride in a child safety restraint system (a car seat). For additional enrichment opportunities for students, you are encouraged to support your students’ learning by providing neighborhood walks and push-in visitors. For more information on this policy, including guidance on using neighborhood walks and push-in visitors, see this Pre-K Field Trip Guidance memorandum.

For questions about buses or car seats, email pupiltransportationteam@schools.nyc.gov. For questions about pre-K instructional supports, email EarlyChildhood@schools.nyc.gov.